


Bony Hands, Restless Mind

by orphan_account



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Nakamaship, Reminiscing Brook, understanding Luffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-10
Updated: 2016-02-10
Packaged: 2018-05-16 09:21:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5823130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brook contemplates flesh and air, and Luffy has all the answers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bony Hands, Restless Mind

Brook is a skeleton. A skeleton that can walk and talk and laugh and dance, but a skeleton.

It usually doesn't bother him as much as it used to.

Before, after it happen, he wondered why he thought that it was ever a good idea to eat that particular Devil Fruit.

(Cursed and swore everyone and everything, even to his great shame, Captain Yorki.)

He remembers the feeling of no longer breathing the most. After taking his last breath, the cool puff of wheezing air through his lungs, to then lose it.

He didn't mind that he took his last breath, he minded that he opened his eyes and wasn't breathing.

(The panic, of seeing but not breathing the reminder of air coursing through his lungs).

The other thing, was not having any skin. Just pale, tough bone beneath his pointy and dead fingertips. But he didn't mind it, as he said, as much.

(Madness left him with the familiar feeling of flesh, ghosting across his bones until he could convince himself of still feeling the air brush against his nose into his lungs.)

But now, among breathing and alive nakama, it's a constant reminder.

The way he can't feel his captain's calloused palms (Brook gives an educated guess, considering that his captain mostly uses his fists and the type of man he is), and how he can never truly feel the softness of Chopper's fur, only the drag of his ears against his bony palm. Not mentioning way that he can't feel the details put into Sanji-san's food, the way he can't feel all the intricate designs of Nami-san's maps, how he can never feel Usopp-san's pats on his shoulder or back, and how he can never truly appreciate Franky-san's inventions he works so hard on, or how each symbol carved into Robin-san's books. And how he can't properly comfort Trafalgar-san after a nightmare.

(Law-kun jumps at the contact of skin and bone, it seems.)

But what Brook misses most, is hugs.

The slide of skin on skin in a simple, innocent, and intimate gesture shared between friends, family, and by nakama.

It's silly.

What he should miss is the color in his vision; he's grateful for the fact that he has vision in the very least, but to see and know the color of his nakama's clothing, eyes, and hair -without having to ask- it would be nice.

His nakama try. Especially his captain, who latches onto him in hugs and cuddles with him when they sleep. Brook appreciates his nakama's tries and gestures, but he doesn't want them to do anything that makes them uncomfortable.

Brook stares at the ships ceiling, laying flat on his back with the sounds of his male nakama's snores filling the room.

This in itself, is a silly thing to think about.

After two years away from his nakama, he should be glad that they're still here.

(Not that he thought that they would rather be anywhere else.)

"Hmm, Brook?" his captain mumbles sleepily, peering up at him with droopy eyes and his messy black hair falling at the sides of his face.  Luffy blinks sleepily up at him, the place between his forehead creasing in confusion, that Brook recognizes.

"Yohoho... I didn't mean to disturb you, Luffy-san."

His captain frowns, eyes still sleepy but more awake than before as he examines him. "Brook can't sleep?"

Brook is tempted to hum, but holds it in at the meaning of 'Brook's lying'. He knows that he's no Zoro-san, but he can read his captain better than most.

"No, Luffy-san, perhaps not."

Luffy grins, flashing up one side of his lips before heaving himself up next to the skeleton, the bed giving a soft creak at the shuffling before he settles in with a soft hum beside Brook, arms wrapping around the bony midsection not a second later.

Brook, for his part, remains silent at the familiar touching, of trying to still feel skin he knows that he can't.

"Ya know, I don't care if Brook's not soft like Robin or firm like Zoro, I like Brook's hugs 'cause they're from Brook!" his captain announces quietly, smile in his voice, cheerful and sleepy all at once.

But isn't that what his captain is? A mixture of things all at once?

Brook chuckles quietly. "Yohoho~ Thank you, Luffy-san." He wraps his skeletal arms around the teen, feeling more at peace than he has with these irritating thoughts.

He may not be able to feel Luffy-san's warm and calloused palms, or Nami-san's intricately designed maps, and he may not be able to feel things exactly, but he knows and feels enough.

So, he may still be curious and frustrated at times because of this, but he knows that his nakama don't mind his bony hugs and touches, that they don't mind because, as his captain put it, he's Brook.


End file.
